Chapter V: Situation

Toronto, Canada

East of Chinatown

Krantz and Wehner were wondering around the streets of Toronto, looking for ways to make money and exploring the city. Wehner was just silent while questioning himself about his surroundings. While for Krantz, he was the opposite. He kept commenting on everything that he saw that wasn't normal back home on the moon.

It's not Krantz's fault for always commenting on all the wonderful stuff that the earth can offer. Food, entertainment, lighting, culture, and more just intrigue Krantz. As they were walking, Wehner spotted a job application poster on the side of a wall. Finally, something else while walking around the large, bustling city of Toronto. Wehner ripped the poster out of the wall and told Krantz to stop and take a look with him. It reads:

—

LEE FAMILY TEMPLE

HELP WANTED

Due to our ever growing company and customers, we are in need of assistance and we will be paying you a nice amount every hour.

Schedule: Monday-Friday, 10:00 AM-5:00 PM

******, *******, Chinatown are the locations.

We also accept non-Chinese speakers and we hope to see you there! :)

—

It seems like something for Krantz and Wehner. The most intriguing part of the poster is that it says that it accepts non-Chinese speakers. Whatever the "Chinese" part means for the duos, it's a jackpot for them since they think that they accept anyone, which since they are unknown around here, it's great for them. Wehner said to Krantz that this is their chance of earning money to buy the iPhone and get out of here. Krantz agreed.

Wehner folded the poster and slid it away into his pockets. They began their quest by looking for the temple for employment. The duo continued walking, looking for any signs of the temple. Wehner occasionally takes a look at the paper to inspect the picture that accompanies the address. While searching, Krantz accidentally bumped into someone. It wasn't a soft bump, it was a rough one. The person that Krantz bumped into was around 19 and wore a bluish jersey t-shirt with 18 on it. It had the name "Lockheed" above the number. The person also wears a sports cap with a sports team logo on it. The unknown person looked at Krantz and said, "Well well well boys, look who bumped on me looking for a fight."

The unknown person, who had three other friends with him, said "ooooohhhhh" and teased the duo. Krantz attempted to dismantle the situation they just got stuck in by saying, "Um earthling, I'm sorry but I'm in a rush. Leave me and my friend be. " The unknown person, confused and annoyed by the last part, said, "Earthling? Leave you? What type of sick joke are you saying? " Wehner, who remembered what Meyer said, whispered to Krantz, advising that they should attempt to walk away and ignore them. Krantz agreed and said, "Like what I said, leave me be."

The duo attempted to walk away and tried not to make eye contact with the group. The unknown person told his group to follow and attempt to harass them, believing that they were easy targets for them. Krantz took a sneak peak to see if Wehner's plans worked. His plans clearly hadn't worked, and he saw the group following them. Krantz alerted Wehner about the development of their situation and agreed to walk faster.

A young girl walks nearby during the entire situation. She was wearing headphones and listening to current pop songs, as one would do in the late 2000s. She wears glasses, a reddish t-shirt, and dark purple jeans. Her most distinct feature is her unusual red hair color. It's obviously for people who watched the movie and know what the red hair means. But simply, it says something bigger that she can do. Having the ability to transform into a large anthropomorphic red panda.

She had recently graduated from high school and was just walking around the streets of Toronto to get some fresh air after some time spent helping her mother back home. She was using her iPod to change some music she was currently listening to until a group of young boys bumped into her. She looked up and said, "Hey, watch where you're going." until she paused her sentence to notice a familiar face, one of her infamous school bullies, James Lockheed. She quickly noticed the group following a duo.

She was curious about what was happening with her high school rivals, so she began following them to investigate the situation. While that was going on, Wehner and Krantz made a left turn and headed into one of the city's alleys. They had no idea they had just walked into a dead end.

Krantz and Wehner stopped and only noticed a wall at the end of the alley. They both tried looking for a way out, but there was just nothing. They are now trapped with nowhere to go and the group they were running away from found them. The unknown person yelled at the duo, calling them cowards and chickens for walking away from them. Krantz lay back on the wall in an attempt to stay away from the group while also having a sense of fear. Wehner was also doing the same, albeit not laying on the wall.

"You really dared to walk away from me? Come on man, face me. "teased the unknown person. In a weak tone, Krantz responded to the unknown person, "Earthling. We did nothing to you. It was an accident, and please just leave me alone with my comrade. " The group laughed at Krantz because of his response. "Earthling? Quit with your bullshit." He aggressively lifted his arm up and formed a fist. He soon said to the duos in an aggressive tone, "Get ready to kiss my fists, dumb fucks." Just as it seemed like it was the end for the duo, someone at the entrance of the alleyway yelled at the group.

"Stop what you are doing, James Lockheed!" A female voice yelled at them. The unknown person, whose we now know his name, looked back and saw a shadow person. He responded, "How did you know my name?" The unknown female walked closer to the group and her face and colors became recognizable. James is able to make out who it was. It was none other than Meilin Lee, and she was here to put an end to the situation.

"Oh great, it's you, just as I really thought I was done with you." Said James in disappointment. While approaching them, she thought to herself, "James never changes." The rest turned their attention to Mei, while the duo just watched the whole ordeal, standing there silently. "Hey, furry!" James yelled back to Mei as she was walking towards them. "You have no business intervening with us. " She formed a fist formation on both of her hands for being called a "furry" and yelled, "Hell no! You are bothering people, and I won't let that happen! "

James's only response was an annoyed face and mocked her defense statement. Afterwords, he said, "Get the hell out of here! I won't deal with you. Besides [pointing to the duo], they are easier than you. " She approached him face-to-face, staring at each other's eyes. She whispered to James, "Leave them alone or I will unleash my panda." James, just downright extremely annoyed, told his group to surround her in an attempt to make her submissive. While watching the whole thing, Wehner advised Krantz to run away with him, but Krantz didn't respond. He just watched and kept his eyes looking at the unknown redhead.

Something about her is just astonishing to Krantz. Her features, her personality, and most importantly, her ability to defend them. Why? Krantz thought to himself. Why is she defending them against a group that is just physically stronger? Those thoughts were in his mind. The Reich's education system simply taught him that all earthlings are evil and should be killed. But right now, things are different right now. He has no gun and he is lost from his main group. All he's got is his only friend on Earth, Wehner.

But then something occurred to him. Something that might be surprising to Wehner. They should use the redhead to try and get help from her. That might sound like a good idea. Her personality of protecting others and not wanting to use violence is just right for someone who doesn't know the surroundings very well and needs company for the duo. After being silent for so long, he finally whispered to Wehner.

"No, we can use the redhead." Confused about the idea, Wehner responded with a direct stare with a clearly confused expression on his face. He said, "Use the redhead? The earthling that is standing up against-" But Wehner couldn't finish his sentence because, during the conversation, something astonishing just happened right in front of them. The rest of the group were pushed back and landed on trash or on the walls of the alleyway. The source was coming from within Mei herself. A thick pink fog was formed around her, and soon she walked out of the fog, revealing something shocking to the duo. It wasn't the same girl that they had seen seconds ago, but a literal giant red panda in front of them.

Unsurprised, both yelled, "Scheisse!" in their German accents. The rest of the group ditched James to run away from the panda. James yelled, "Cowards!" to his group. Mei yelled to the rest, saying, "I told you! Leave them alone! " Before James left himself, he ran and yelled, "You two! You just made an enemy! *Points to the duos* and for you Mei! One day! "

Her responce to James with just a quick glare and flipped the bird. With the group gone, the alleyway is silent, albeit cars passing by are still looked at the duo and began walking up to them with a calm expression on her face. The duo's response was terror. They hadn't seen a human transform into a large beast before, and it was just a shocking sight to see. Wehner lifted his left hand up and faced her, telling her to stay away from them. She realized the situation and quickly transformed back into her human form. "Oh, my bad," she admitted. "I didn't mean to scare you. Did I look dramatic because my friends say that I tend to be like that? "

Curiously, Krantz responded to her in his best way of acting calm, saying, "Uh Earthling—*cleared his throat* Fräulein, what the hell just happened!?" The longer he spoke, the louder his voice got. He got no response. "They're not around here, aren't they?" Mei said to herself. For a second, she noticed that the duo had some outdated fashion and seemed ragged. They appear to be the same age as the duo. In reality, she's 19, while the duo are 20. After a small pause between the two, she attempted to make her conversation as normal and calm as she could to get it over with, saying, "The group that attempted to beat you were my bullies or rivals from high school. And are you from around here?"

Wehner and Krantz looked at each other for a quick second and soon looked back at Mei. Krantz opened his mouth to answer her questions, but Wehner was quick and said,

"Miss."

He pulled the job application paper out of his pocket and said, "No time for questions. I want to know where I can find this place. We are looking for a job. " She looked at the paper and noticed that it was her family business. She opened her eyes wide and looked back at the duo, saying, "Oh, I know where it is. I live and work there but-" Krantz interrupted Mei and said, "Great! So, um, show us where it is." Anxiously, Mei said, "Uhhhh, I don't know if you should work there. It doesn't have the best income, and my mom tends to be an aggressive speaker for a lot of other reasons. Just don't " Krantz and Wehner looked at each other and questioned the job. Wehner said to Mei, "Excuse us for a moment." She said, "Ok."

They walked to an area where the redhead wouldn't be able to hear their whispers and began their discussion. Both began questioning if there were other jobs to take, but Krantz leans more toward favoring continuing their choice of working on the temple for reasons such as: working with the redhead to learn about the surrounding areas and protection, as well as fears of the group coming back to bite their ass without the redhead's assistance. Wehner, out of ideas and defeated by Krantz's statement, Wehner accepted Krantz's plan for their future.

They broke their huddle and walked up to Mei, who was right now just using her Flip Phone out of boredom. She quickly looked at the duo and said, "So boys, you decided?" Krantz looked at Wehner for a second and then looked back at Mei. As proudly as he could, he said, "After a minute of discussing, we have decided to go with the job." Mei's eyes were wide open and surprised that the duo actually accepted the job application, despite all the risks and warnings she told them. A few years back, the temple expanded in size due to the large income the family had been making just because of Mei's incredible ability and attractions. With a larger size and more visitors, the place got busy.

So, reasonably, Ming decided to open job applications to people to work at the temple to maintain the place. The problem is that Ming like to do it her own way. People would often quit after 2 weeks of working there and would warn others about it. But this time, the duo were determined to work as hard as they could just to get out of here quickly and return to the moon.

Mei looked at the two and sighed. She said to herself, "I guess I can help them and take the risk." Finally, she said to the duo. "Follow me." And with that, they have gotten themselves a job and are ready to see what the mysterious work can offer them.

Krantz whispered to himself, "That redheaded fraulein is something."

End of Chapter V